EDITOR’S PAGE BETH HARKNESS, CNMT

Beth Harkness

Each quarter as I sit down to write this editorial, I think about events of significance that have recently occurred. It is hard to escape dwelling on the effect that hurricanes Katrina and Rita have had on our country. I am sure that, as I write this in mid October, there are still members of our nuclear medicine community that do not have homes or jobs and are facing an uncertain future. On their Hurricane Katrina Web site, the American Red Cross states that, to date, they have given financial assistance to 1.1 million families, which equates to 3.4 million survivors. The population of Los Angeles was about 3.7 million in the 2000 census. Chicago was the next largest city in 2000 with about 2.7 million. It boggles the mind to think of the scope of that disaster. And this is on top of last December’s Indian Ocean tsunami and now an earthquake in Pakistan and another devastating hurricane in Guatemala that is barely making the news. What’s next?

A series of events like this tends to make us all stop and evaluate just how much we have to be thankful for. People from the disaster areas are thankful that at least they survived and that their loved ones survived. And I hope that as the year goes on and their lives return to normal and they receive the help that they deserve, that they will have more and more to be thankful for. Those of us far from those areas can be thankful just for that accident of geography!

As I look back over this year, I am thankful for the help I have gotten as editor of JNMT. My editorial board has, as usual, been a tremendous help. They review a huge number of papers and several are close confidants that have shared their sage advice. The SNM staff that very patiently puts together each issue has also been invaluable. They log in each article, make sure I get everything through the online system in a timely manner, and respond to author queries. There is Susan Alexander, who juggles many tasks at once and doesn’t drop a single one; the ever-patient Mahnaaz Latib, who handles my calls whenever I can’t find Susan; Susan Nadolny, editor extraordinaire and keeper of the page count; and Ann Coleman, who, among many other tasks, helps with this editorial each quarter. Please look at the table of contents page for a moment. All of the people on that page make a major contribution to each issue of this journal. It would not come out each quarter without their help. After 5 years as editor, I can honestly say that I am thankful that these individuals make my life so much easier.

Of course, there are many other things that I am personally thankful for this year. As I gather with family and friends during the holiday season, we will remember those that have not been as fortunate. But as a year of one natural disaster after another comes to a close, I think I will be most thankful that this year is over and just look forward to a better one next year. To all of you, I wish you a safe, happy, and less eventful New Year.